The present invention relates to a feeding device for feeding animals, preferably piglets, and which comprises a base designed with a fodder plate, a frame fastened to the base, a mainly stiff pipe suspended pivotally in the frame via suspending means, a funnel-shaped hopper for fodder fixed to the frame and provided with a lower outlet communicating with the upper end of the pipe, a dispensing unit formed by the lower end of the pipe, which pipe may be slided mainly vertically by means of a control bar extending through the interior of the hopper and the pipe, the control bar being fastened to the hopper and to the pipe, where the upper end of the bar is connected with means for elevating and lowering the pipe.
DK Utility Model No. 94 00446 discloses a feeding device of the kind mentioned in the introduction. When an animal is hungry it pushes the lower end of the pipe so that fodder flows out on the fodder plate. The pipe which is a loose sleeve is fastened to the control bar through a connection at the upper end of the sleeve. This sleeve is arranged solely for pendular movement. This do not ensure an accurate dosage of the fodder to animals of different sizes. Since a precise adjustment of the sleeve is difficult dosage of small amounts for piglets will be especially difficult.
In WO 93/13652 a feeding device is described for feeding pigs and which has a distance adjusting mechanism connecting the upper end of the tubular fodder hopper and a stationary structural section. This feeding device functions in such a way that an animal when hungry pushes its snout against the pipe in order to move it so that the fodder flows out from the pipe.
A feeding device of the above-mentioned kind has performed very satisfactorily but some drawbacks have appeared. Thus it has shown to be difficult to provide an elastically flexible pipe with sufficient elasticity for piglets. Therefore it will be difficult to adapt the feeding device optimally according to the force which piglets can act on the pipe with and furthermore, it will be expensive to make such a device because elastically flexible material for making the pipe will be relative expensive. Furthermore, it will become difficult to dispense the fodder in an accurate and simple way using the very flexible pipe.
German Patent No. 26 52 788 discloses another feeding device where a relatively short piece of pipe is connected with a funnel-shaped container. In this construction the flexibility is achieved by means of a funnel-shaped sleeve connecting the fodder hopper with the fodder pipe. In this construction a control of the fodder flow rate is difficult as the whole hopper has to be displaced upwards and downwards on a frame. Furthermore, it will be difficult to control the amount of fodder in a sufficiently simple and accurate way as the resiliency of the pipe will be dependent on the degree of filling and the amount of fodder in the funnel shaped sleeve.
Especially when feeding piglets with fodder having a large content of milk powder or granulated fodder material, e.g. milled corn in which melted fat has been absorbed, a great risk exists that the fodder clutches and congests the pipe or the hopper. No efficient solution to this problem has been indicated in connection with the known constructions.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a feeding device which is simple and cheap to manufacture and which is suitable for feeding piglets, where it is simple and easy to control precisely the discharged amount of fodder so that the device easily may be adjusted to the size of the animals.
This object is achieved with a feeding device of the type mentioned in the introduction and which is peculiar in that the control bar is fastened to the lower end of the pipe, that the control bar is elastically flexible and mounted slidably in one or two tubular slide bushings that are mutually spaced apart and fastened to the hopper. Each slide bushing will preferably be elongated.
In addition to the adjustment of the height of the fodder pipe, the control bar provides a greater or lesser deflection of the pipe at a given action of a force on its lower end. This is advantageously for feeding piglets which do not have so much force to push the pipe than pigs, and therefore they would get a smaller amount of feed.
The feeding device according to the present invention may be said to be an improvement and alternative solution to the problems connected with the known feeding devices according to the two above-mentioned publications.
By making a control bar of an elastically flexible material being placed in said at least one of the bushings, this control bar may simultaneously fulfil two purposes, i.e. an adjustment of the height of the pipe over the fodder plate and thereby an adjustment of the discharged amount of fodder simultaneously with the control bar providing a greater or lesser deflection of the fodder pipe at a given action of a force on the lower end of the pipe.
The control bar thus creates an elastic flexibility of the fodder pipe, which has shown to be advantageous by the feeding of animals. When the animals act with a force in a transverse direction the first movement may occur as a pendular movement due to clearances at the point of fastening the pipe to the control bar. Alternatively the control bar may be firmly connected with the pipe so that any movement occurs as an elastically resilient movement of the pipe and thus the pipe will always be returned to a starting position.
The principle of feeding by means of a flexible pipe is known from the above mentioned publication and will not be described in detail. It shall only be mentioned that the elastic flexibility has to be in such a way that the movement may be established by the animals eating fodder supplied through a gap delimited by the lower edge of the fodder pipe and the fodder plate. At the same time the elastically, flexible movement transversely of the fodder plate will prevent the forming of bridges or congestion of fodder in the pipe or in the hopper. Thus the control bar extending through the pipe and the hopper will contribute to prevent congestion. This is especially important in connection with fodder having a high content of milk powder and/or fat.
As the mainly stiff pipe is suspended freely pivotally on the frame at its upper end in a ring-shaped suspending means, the elastic reversing force for the pipe will be determined solely be the flexibility of the control bar. As it is possible to buy tubular spring steel rods in different dimensions the desired elasticity may be achieved very simply. The pipe may be manufactured of a cheap stiff material.
Controlling the feeding device may take place in an uncomplicated way just by displacing the pipe upwards or downwards by means of the control bar, and when the feeding device has to be adjusted to animals in different sizes it takes place simply by changing the position of the slide bushing in relation to the hopper and thereby in relation to the fodder plate.
By making a suitable setting of the slide bushing relative to the free end of the control bar projecting below the slide bushing it is possible to control the feeding device so it is adjusted to the actual size of the animals fed by the device. The slide bushing may thus be placed in a larger or lesser distance over the fodder plate and may be placed inside the hopper or may extend partly downwards into the pipe.
The dimensions of the control bar may be varied, the length of the slide bushing may be varied, the position of the slide bushing may be varied, as well as the use of two mutually spaced apart slide bushings is possible. This makes it possible to adjust a feeding device according to the present invention to animals having different sizes. Accordingly, the feeding device may also be adjusted for use by other animals than piglets.
Even though the feeding device may be very suitable for use by feeding piglets, which may act on the outlet end of the pipe with a small force, the feeding device may be adapted to feed larger pigs or other animals which are able to act on the outlet end of the pipe with a large force, just by exchanging the control bar.